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Explosive Breacher Modeling

Challenge

Where should explosive breachers stand to reduce injury risk from their own explosives in complex or indoor environments? How well do blast shields protect breachers from blast effects? Current safety standards are based on outdoor use in simple environments with only ear protection. Experiments provide limited information on blast overpressure exposure.

Solution

ARA created computational models to simulate blast exposure on explosive breachers in complex environments using the SHAMRC high-fidelity multi-physics code. The models were validated with experimental pressure data from breaching events. The simulations provide blast exposure levels over the entire body.

Impact

The military now has a much better understanding of blast exposure levels on explosive breachers. The blast exposure information from simulations can be used to create new standoff and shielding guidelines for use by explosive breachers in the field, and can also be used to study medical outcomes from blast exposure.

Video of Breacher Demo

Blast wave interaction with personnel and structure from a SHAMRC breaching event simulation